Chinese President, Xi says China should stick to its poverty relief target and make continuous efforts for a victory in the battle against poverty.
Xi said China has achieved remarkable progress in its fight against poverty during the past seven decades, adding that China is going to eradicate absolute poverty in rural areas by 2020. More than 700 million Chinese people have been lifted out of poverty over the past 40 years. And in the past six years, China lifted 82.39 million rural poor out of poverty, with the rural poor population down from 98.99 million in 2012 to 16.6 million in 2018.
By the end of this year, around 95 percent of China’s poor population will shake off poverty, and over 90 percent of poor counties will be removed from the poverty list.
Efforts should be made to provide basic public services to poor people nationwide so that they will no longer need to worry about food and clothing while enjoying access to compulsory education, basic medical care and safe housing, Li said, adding that poverty relief efforts should be concentrated on assisting areas of extreme poverty.
A conference to commend people who have made outstanding contributions to poverty alleviation was held in Beijing on Thursday morning. Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua, who is also chief of the State Council Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development, attended the conference and read the instructions of Xi and Li.
